I am going back and forth about 2012 vs 2014 mini. too bad 2014 isn't ram upgradeable. at least they did upgrade the gpu. if I get a 2012 how long will the graphics be good for. I dont game but I like really smooth animations and stuff with the UI
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how soon with GPU on 2012 mini be outdated?
- Thread starter wkw
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My 2010 Mac Pro 3.2 quad with an ATI 5870 GPU had much smoother UI and video than my 2012 mini does. It just depends want you want. With only SATA 2, USB2 and 1066Ghz RAM the Mac Pro was still a superior computer in a dozen ways to the 2012 mini.
I happen to like the concept and engineering of the mini. Along with the really useful SATA 3 and USB 3 I'm also using the TB port. The mini just works for me right now.
If you want smooth graphics on a Mac you are going to have to step up to an iMac. My favorite, the 21.5" with the top GPU looks to be pretty good.
There must be people out there running 2560x1600 screens from their 2012s, surely?
I saw another post of yours where you said video at 1080p is much smoother on the 2014 mini with HD5000 vs the HD4000 on the 2012.
Can you please elaborate?
I currently have one monitor at 1920x1080, but I'm going to go for a dual monitor setup at some point.
Do I get another 1920x1080, or am I stretching it with a 2560x1440 in addition to the 1920x1080?
The specs say it can run that no problem, but I don't want it to lag too much.
I Used a 2012 quad for quite some time with two thunderbolt displays..stuff like mission control and ui animations would suffer...not horribly but it was not a very good experience like a current imac or macbook pro.
I've run a 30" Dell Ultrasharp at 2560x1600 from my 2009 C2D Mini over DVI-D. Worked great. Should be easy for a 2012 with Intel HD4000.
Sadly, currently there isn't an easy and inexpensive way of attaching an exernal GPU via Thunderbolt. This way we could make the infamous 2014 Mini a winner by attaching a nVidia GTX Series through a TB2 port. Searching information in the web, the less expensive adapter costs around $200 and requires some hacks to make this work (didn't find anyone who tried, there are just suppositions).
I run a 2560x1440 display with my mini and on the whole it's not too bad but it's not perfect either. It can stutter from time to time.